The problem of evil and suffering... (Main Forum)

by Brian Coyne , LINDEN, NSW, Thursday, May 24, 2012, 17:15 (391 days ago) @ Vince

First It, the question of origins (the Alpha position): I simply don't believe something as complex and beautiful as Life, or Existence, could have evolved from nothing, or had no origin. I simply do not believe Life, or Existence, is random, directionless or without some ultimate Origin, or Meaning. My definition of "God" under this first schema the is essentially defined in the negative terms of what God is not — i.e. that there was no Origin, or no Ultimate Meaning.

If one believes this, you must provide a complete and reasonable explanation for all the evil, of all types, that exist!

Vince,

I do not think that is such a difficult assignment. In a sense that is the driving agenda for the entire foundational story of Christianity. God did not create evil and suffering. He (She or It) might be a "loving God" but He (She or It) did not set out deliberately to impose pain and suffering and evil on Creation. Evil (pain and suffering) arise as an inevitable side-effect of the choice given to sentient creation to play some part in the Creation Endeavour. We help build the future of Creation, we create history, and God respects those contributions absolutely. God does not step in to correct our mistakes. The cycle of birth-growth-maturity-death is also an inescapable part of the template of Creation. Death inevitably carries with it pain, especially for the higher forms of life.

Are the foundational stories of our religion trying so much to describe the (loving, compassionate, justice and mercy) qualities of God? Or are they trying to explain how a loving, compassionate, etc., God allow suffering, pain and evil into Creation? I think it is the latter. We get too hung up on the picture of a loving God. I sense God IS loving — and would not hurt a flea. The reason why evil – and pain and suffering – exist in Creation is: (a) because of the cyclical nature of Creation (Jacob Bronowski titled one of the episodes in the Ascent of Man, "The Music of the Spheres", which discusses the cyclical aspect of Creation), death is inevitable for new life and with death comes pain; (b) in giving us (sentient life) the freedom and capacity to contibute to the outworking of Creation the reality is that we're going to cock up a lot of the time. It is us, not God, that brings a lot of the pain, suffering and evil into Creation.

I don't think "blaming God" for the existence of Evil helps much. Yes, he could have created some "heaven on earth" but that is what the Garden of Eden would have looked like had humankind chosen through the apocryphal story of Adam and Eve the alternative choice available to them. Do the animals and other lower life forms have an understanding of "evil" in their vocabulary? Where I disagree with the fundamentalists is in some "personalised" concept of Evil in the guise of the Devil, Beezelbub, Satan, Old Nick, or any of the other names that are used. That is as flawed a concept as thinking of God as some "kindly old uncle" sitting up above the clouds who is constantly "intervening" or meddling in our soup to correct our mistakes, or impress us with his existence. The God that matters resides within each of us, as does the Evil that causes us our pain!

Brian Coyne
[Editor & Publisher]